Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Year: 2022
Director: David Blue Garcia
Starring: Mark Burnham, Olwen Fouéré, Elsie Fisher & Sarah Yarkin
Runtime: 81 mins
BBFC: 18
Published: 25/02/22
Director: David Blue Garcia
Starring: Mark Burnham, Olwen Fouéré, Elsie Fisher & Sarah Yarkin
Runtime: 81 mins
BBFC: 18
Published: 25/02/22
Considering how almost every major franchise from the golden age of horror has received a sequel that serves as a reboot recently it was only going to be a matter of time until The Texas Chainsaw Massacre received the same treatment. However, unlike most of the franchises being rebooted recently, Chainsaw Massacre hasn’t been particularly dormant, with reasonably frequent releases ever since the original film in 1974. But with the property changing hands to a new production studio the timing seemed right and having missed a theatrical window due to the pandemic it went straight to streaming. Can Texas Chainsaw Massacre help restore the aged franchise back to its former glory, or does it continue to grapple with the same problems that has faced almost every other entry?
Fifty years after the state of Texas was rocked by the murder of four teenagers by a chainsaw wielding cannibal, many struggle to let go of what happened. So, when a group of young entrepreneurs roll into the town of Harlow to sell off the dilapidated properties and gentrify the area they are given a cold welcome. But when an altercation with an elderly local goes awry the youngsters find themselves the latest targets of Leatherface (Mark Burnham), and the only person who can save them is the sole survivor of the attacks from fifty years ago, Sally Hardesty (Olwen Fouéré).
Fifty years after the state of Texas was rocked by the murder of four teenagers by a chainsaw wielding cannibal, many struggle to let go of what happened. So, when a group of young entrepreneurs roll into the town of Harlow to sell off the dilapidated properties and gentrify the area they are given a cold welcome. But when an altercation with an elderly local goes awry the youngsters find themselves the latest targets of Leatherface (Mark Burnham), and the only person who can save them is the sole survivor of the attacks from fifty years ago, Sally Hardesty (Olwen Fouéré).
Much like 2018’s Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre retcons decades worth of sequels the franchise already has under its belt to start a new canon. All things considered, this wasn't a bad idea considering the state of many of the Texas Chainsaw sequels. But what seems to be the trend with many of these franchise revivals of late is that they tend to want to make a statement about current events (see Halloween Kills), or they want to deconstruct the franchise in the same way Wes Craven achieved with New Nightmare in the 90’s. Texas Chainsaw wants to fall into the former category with statements about race and gun laws, but it never commits to this premise beyond a fleeting introduction.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing, I mean 2018’s Halloween proved that simply refining the formula presented in the original film can produce a fantastic sequel...but Texas Chainsaw Massacre doesn’t even do this, instead opting to produce just another excessively gory and scare lacking sequel much like what the franchise has been producing for the last several decades.
Don’t get me wrong, there were things to like about Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the gory kills being that exact thing...but there was nothing else there. Tobe Hooper’s 1974 classic may have lacked narrative depth but it made up for it in sheer trouser-browning terror (without needing to resort to buckets of blood and gore), this most recent film goes for the bloodier is better route but fails to produce a reason to invest yourself in what's happening through either terror or narrative depth.
I also hated all of the characters...and I mean all of the characters. Most of this stems from the films constant need to try and dangle the carrot of character development in front of our noses only to draw it away before we get any useful information about who these people are or why they are there. With the teens from the original film all we needed to know was that they were on a road trip and their family used to own property in the area...that’s all the backstory we needed. In this film it’s never made clear how or why these teens have enough money to buy an entire town, why they’ve bought it, and what has happened to them in the past. There’s the occasional line that’ll reference a bad home life as a child, and a recurring flashback to a school shooting for one of the characters, but nothing is given enough detail to make any sense or contribute meaningfully to the story.
Most of all though I hated Melody (Sarah Yarkin) and Dante (Jacob Latimore). These two are the reason for all the trouble that befalls the group, but it’s literally just because these two people are so unnecessarily antagonistic to every single person they meet. I don’t think there could possibly be a way for director David Blue Garcia to have illustrated that he believes woke young people are just angry at everything all the time for no real reason. I was on Leatherface’s side here, these kids just came in and ruined the only thing he ever cared about just because they could, damn right I want to see them chopped up into little bits!
This isn't necessarily a bad thing, I mean 2018’s Halloween proved that simply refining the formula presented in the original film can produce a fantastic sequel...but Texas Chainsaw Massacre doesn’t even do this, instead opting to produce just another excessively gory and scare lacking sequel much like what the franchise has been producing for the last several decades.
Don’t get me wrong, there were things to like about Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the gory kills being that exact thing...but there was nothing else there. Tobe Hooper’s 1974 classic may have lacked narrative depth but it made up for it in sheer trouser-browning terror (without needing to resort to buckets of blood and gore), this most recent film goes for the bloodier is better route but fails to produce a reason to invest yourself in what's happening through either terror or narrative depth.
I also hated all of the characters...and I mean all of the characters. Most of this stems from the films constant need to try and dangle the carrot of character development in front of our noses only to draw it away before we get any useful information about who these people are or why they are there. With the teens from the original film all we needed to know was that they were on a road trip and their family used to own property in the area...that’s all the backstory we needed. In this film it’s never made clear how or why these teens have enough money to buy an entire town, why they’ve bought it, and what has happened to them in the past. There’s the occasional line that’ll reference a bad home life as a child, and a recurring flashback to a school shooting for one of the characters, but nothing is given enough detail to make any sense or contribute meaningfully to the story.
Most of all though I hated Melody (Sarah Yarkin) and Dante (Jacob Latimore). These two are the reason for all the trouble that befalls the group, but it’s literally just because these two people are so unnecessarily antagonistic to every single person they meet. I don’t think there could possibly be a way for director David Blue Garcia to have illustrated that he believes woke young people are just angry at everything all the time for no real reason. I was on Leatherface’s side here, these kids just came in and ruined the only thing he ever cared about just because they could, damn right I want to see them chopped up into little bits!
Cinematographer Ricardo Diaz has had a field day with this film though, especially scenes starring Leatherface. It’s so disturbingly beautiful to watch, and when the blood gets flowing it’s incredibly mesmerising. Combine this with the fun kills and an ending that did genuinely catch me by surprise and I did have some fun with Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but I was definitely left with the feeling that there was a lot of missed opportunities.
The film either needed to be a bit longer to allow for the expositional dialogue to be fully fleshed out and give these characters the depth the film clearly wanted them to have...or just cut out any of the allusions to character building at all and ramp up the terror akin to the first film.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre may have some great kills, but it’s so substantially lacking a reason to care about it. It looks good, but it fails to deliver on the most basic requirements of slasher movie satisfaction that I can’t see this film being remembered in more than a few weeks. Just another nail in the coffin for a franchise that should never have made it past the first entry.
The film either needed to be a bit longer to allow for the expositional dialogue to be fully fleshed out and give these characters the depth the film clearly wanted them to have...or just cut out any of the allusions to character building at all and ramp up the terror akin to the first film.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre may have some great kills, but it’s so substantially lacking a reason to care about it. It looks good, but it fails to deliver on the most basic requirements of slasher movie satisfaction that I can’t see this film being remembered in more than a few weeks. Just another nail in the coffin for a franchise that should never have made it past the first entry.